Lighting a Path: The Southern Blue Ridge On-Call Burn Crew

In the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains, inhospitable terrain, weather conditions and lack of staffing have long restricted the use of prescribed fire. “Lighting a Path” highlights an innovative on-call controlled burn crew launched by The Nature Conservancy in North Carolina to make working with fire accessible to more people and expand capacity for good fire in the mountain region. Bringing together retired firefighters, early-career professionals, graduate students and mothers returning to the workforce—to name a few—the Southern Blue Ridge Burn Crew has helped partners throughout the Southern Blue Ridge make the most of burn opportunities to restore ecosystem health and reduce wildfire risk. To see more videos in this series, visit firenetworks.org/manypaths.